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Local offices open to support Bruce Power

The lure of supply chain companies to Port Elgin and Underwood in support Bruce Power's multi-billion dollar refurbishment of CANDU nuclear reactors at its Tiverton site continued with the welcome of two more companies by officials with the Bruce Power/Bruce County Economic Development and Innovation Initiative.

The Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries (OCNI) rented a satellite office on Goderich St. in Port Elgin, and Sierra Systems held a ribbon-cutting for its new office in Underwood Jan. 17, becoming the first IT supplier in the region.

The expansions stem, in part, from efforts of the Bruce County- Bruce Power Nuclear Economic Development and Innovation Initiative, a partnership with the common goal of long-term success for the nuclear industry and the Grey/Bruce/Huron regions.

Last year the Initiative helped draw 12 major suppliers to the region, more than doubling existing companies. That translates into approximately 250 additional jobs in the local economy in the next few years, according to Stellina Williams, a Bruce County Business Investment Specialist, who said they are mostly construction and engineering firms, and now Sierra Systems, the first IT company.

She said an economic assessment of the impact of Bruce Power's multibillion, multi-year reactor life-extension program.

"For every one job created by a supplier, there' an additional 2.5 jobs created in the community," Williams said in a Jan. 15 telephone interview, adding the Initiative will target eight new supplies for 2018, and will continue to provide support to the firms already here, including connecting the new companies with the community and local landowners.

"I know, particularly in Port Elgin, there's a lot of development opportunity for new offices, so our support is to kind of connect [the suppliers] with the community to help them to better understand how that community can support them in the longer term to help keep them there," Williams said, adding the

expectation is for the local connection to be more than just an office, but what the new companies' local contributions will look like is up to them, Williams said.

Some of the 2017 Initiative highlights include:

Key successes in 2017 include:

- welcomed ABRAFLEX to Paisley where it opened a manufacturing/warehousing/office facility in 70,000 square feet of under-utilized.

- posted more than 80 coupons posted by local businesses since the launch of couponcountry.ca in October offering a website to help raise awareness of the wide variety of services and products available across Bruce, Grey and Huron counties to support increased local spending.

- launched www.greaternuclearenergyarea.ca - a website for prospective and new residents, services and hospitals.

- to help support the initiative, many municipalities - including Saugeen Shores - assigned dedicated economic development officers to attract new businesses and retain existing ones.